The cybersecurity industry has faced a remarkable case as, instead of protecting corporate wallets, professional negotiator Angelo Martino became an architect of hacker ransom schemes himself. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has officially brought the operation to a close by issuing a forfeiture order targeting his hidden crypto portfolios.
As the total value of the seized assets is estimated at $8.37 million, the most interesting part of the case is that the “independent diplomat” preferred not to keep all his eggs in one basket, spreading the funds across several blockchain ecosystems:
- Anti-inflation artillery: 90.319 $BTC, worth approximately $5.84 million, as the main defensive asset.
- Shadow cash: 7,999.873 XMR, worth approximately $2.46 million, held in the privacy-focused Monero cryptocurrency to cover his tracks.
- Liquid transit assets: 56,174.15 $XRP, seized from wallet “…EkThx6”, and 39,760.79 XLM, held at address “…5RJ3BD”.
- Residual balances: small amounts of Solana’s native SOL token.
Alongside the blockchain addresses, the government also took control of tangible trophies from the lavish Florida lifestyle Martino financed by betraying his clients. The court ordered the forfeiture of two luxury residential properties, premium vehicles, and motorboats that the former negotiator used while taking breaks from his illicit dealings.
A million-dollar scheme
How did Martino manage to accumulate such volumes of $XRP and Bitcoin right under regulators’ noses? The answer lies in a cynical double game.
Large companies hired him as a senior executive during their most critical moments, when hackers linked to the BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, ransomware group encrypted corporate networks and demanded millions of dollars in exchange for decryption keys. Martino was supposed to act as a shield by negotiating down the price and arranging the secure transfer of cryptocurrency.
Instead, he turned the negotiations into an insider auction. The “diplomat” secretly leaked information to the hackers about his clients’ actual budgets and the limits of their insurance policies. Knowing the victims’ exact financial capacity, BlackCat could dictate tougher terms, while Martino received a fixed percentage in $BTC and $XRP for assisting with the extortion.
Over time, he became so deeply involved that he turned into a full participant in the attacks.
The double game ended in a predictable collapse. Martino was convicted and sentenced to 70 months in federal prison, while the latest court-ordered forfeiture of more than $8.3 million has effectively eliminated the financial foundation of his “business.”